"The centuries between 1500 and 1800 were characterized in Asia by a contest between European influence and indigenous political and economic processes. Asian polities did not fold up in the face of European aggression but instead formed new states - some large and imperial, others compact and modest.

Characterizing them as "early modern" in their political and fiscal structure, as well as their political culture, Sanjay Subrahmanyam highlights the dynamism and resilience of these indigenous societies before 1800 and in so doing offers readers an analysis of cultural and social history innovatively combined with political, military, and economic history.".

"Subrahmanyam draws upon sources in Portuguese, Dutch, English, Spanish, and a variety of Indian languages and archives to enter into the lives of such south Indian states as Mysore, Tanjavur, and Arcot, which have been neglected by historians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."--BOOK JACKET.